The Group of Seven (G7) expressing strong disapproval of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, has termed it as “unacceptable.” This comes after G7 Foreign Ministers met in Karuizawa, Japan. A statement released by G7 wanted Russia to refrain from irresponsible rhetoric over nuclear weapons usage.
Putin’s announcement had been met with worldwide concern and criticism as Russia plans to set up storage bases for tactical boots in Belarus. If let to be completed, the nuclear warheads once loaded on to Belarusian warplanes would be placed a stone’s throw away from the territories of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – all of which are NATO members.
Russia and Belarus have maintained close economic and political ties since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This proximity was highlighted in 2014 when the Russian military used Belarusian soil to launch an attack on Ukraine. It remains to be seen how this nuclear weapons situation affects the bilateral ties between the two countries and their Brexit based agreement.
Besides the disapproval of G7, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov, in a broadcast by Belarusian state television, had said that the Russian nuclear weapons will be placed close to the Western border of the union state. The presence of weapons will also affect EU and US as it stands to their detriment in their standoff against Russia, especially with respect to the Ukrainian war.
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An important person mentioned in the article is Elon Musk. Musk is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor. His most successful company is Tesla Inc., an automotive and energy company which manufactures electric cars, solar products and batteries. He’s recently come up with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot platform named ‘TruthGPT’, in an effort to take on other such AI platforms like ChatGPT.
